Air Sealing for Utah Homes

Sealing the outlets, fixtures, vents, and fans your home leaks through. Without air sealing, no insulation delivers its intended R-value.

Your home leaks air through anything that penetrates a wall or ceiling: outlets, switches, light fixtures, skylights, vents, and fans. Each opening looks trivial. Taken together, the cumulative air-permeable penetrations in most houses are equivalent to an average 30-inch hole in the wall. You would never leave a hole that size open — but that's effectively what an unsealed house is doing all year.

What air sealing is

Air sealing uses foam or caulking to close those penetrations. Done thoroughly, it greatly improves temperature regulation and moisture control — the two things homeowners actually feel day to day.

Why it comes before insulation

Regardless of the insulation type you choose, without proper air sealing you will not achieve its intended R-value. Insulation slows heat conduction; it does not stop air from carrying your heating and cooling straight through the assembly. The Building Science Corporation's Thermal Metric study put it plainly: when walls are constructed with the same installed R-value in the stud space, and are air sealed both inside and outside, they exhibit essentially the same thermal performance regardless of the type of insulation material used.

That's why our sequence is always the same: seal first, then insulate.

What it pays back

Studies show proper insulation and air sealing typically achieve whole-house energy savings of 10% to 20% over pre-retrofit usage, and older homes with little or no insulation can see much more (EPA, via the Building America Best Practices Series, U.S. Department of Energy). Given that heating and cooling account for 50% to 70% of the average American home's energy use, sealing the envelope is where the savings live.

Testing when it's useful

When it helps quantify the work — or when a rebate program requires it — we can arrange blower door testing that measures leakage before and after, so you can see the improvement as a number rather than a feeling.

Book a free estimate and we'll show you where your home is leaking before you commit to anything.